Foraging for fruit is a favorite midsummer pasttime. Maybe you’ve gone picking wild blackberries or blueberries, even wild plums and gooseberries. You may have noticed something that looked a lot like a blackberry growing on trees in your neighborhood and seen a bunch of purplish stains on the ground where they land. These are mulberries, and they are a great summer fruit to forage!

Like other deep purple berries, mulberries are a terrific source of anthocyanins and resveratrol, some of the anti-inflammatory compounds that help fight free radical damage and prevent cancer. Like blueberries and blackberries, they’re a good source of vitamins and fiber and are relatively low in calories and sugar compared to many other fruits.

Mulberries come in white, light purple, reddish, or deep purple, and each has a slightly different flavor. You can tell when they’re ready by feeling them — unripe fruit will be quite hard, and a berry ready to eat will yield to the touch. If you eat an unripe one, you’ll know by the flavor it needed some more time to sweeten up. It will also be unpleasantly crunchy. The white variety are reported to be sweeter than the black ones we have in my neck of the woods.

I may receive commissions from purchases made through links in this article at no additional cost to you. Read full disclosure.

Growing or Foraging Mulberries

Most of the growing information online says mulberries grow in zone 5 or warmer, but the black mulberries here in zone 4 are doing just fine, thank you very much. Growing your own usually isn’t necessary anyhow, as the birds plant mulberry trees all over the place. Take a walk in your neighborhood or in a public park, and you may well see several trees full of fruit. They’re pretty easy to identify, the only tree that appears to be growing blackberries.

They have a long season, with the first berries ripening in June.

You can pick them by hand, which can be slow going if you have a lot of berries. Ripe ones will come off easily. You can also place a tarp below the branches and give the tree a good shake to collect the ripe mulberries. Make sure to use something you don’t mind getting stained, and probably a good idea to wear clothes you don’t care much about as well!

The stems sometimes come off with the mulberries, but it’s fine to eat them along with the berry. Not entirely delicious fresh, but no one will notice if you’re cooking with them.

Mulberries have a thin skin, which means they won’t last long, so gobble ’em up or get cooking with some of the mulberry recipes below. They can sub for blackberries or other berries in a number of recipes, though I find them less flavorful than blueberries, blackberries or raspberries.

As an Amazon Associate I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases.

Hi, I'm Susannah, a garden geek, energy nerd, and fan of healthy food and natural remedies. Need some simple, practical solutions for living healthier and greener? You've come to the right place! More about me and my green projects here.